{"id":723393,"date":"2026-06-08T16:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T16:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/723393\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T16:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T16:44:08","slug":"panthers-damien-lewis-spotlights-top-nfl-mandatory-minicamp-ol-battles-leadership-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/723393\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers’ Damien Lewis spotlights top NFL mandatory minicamp OL battles, leadership role"},"content":{"rendered":"

Panthers’ Damien Lewis spotlights top NFL mandatory minicamp OL battles, leadership role<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Carolina Panthers<\/a> left guard Damien Lewis<\/a> expects more help in 2026.<\/p>\n

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And, hopefully, less turnaround.<\/p>\n

The Panthers’ injury-plagued offensive line<\/a> competed with 10 different offensive-line combinations during the opening 13 weeks last season, 12 in all when Robert Hunt<\/a> (torn biceps) returned for the NFC Wild Card loss last January.<\/p>\n

Despite the instability, the Panthers earned their first NFC South championship since 2015, despite finishing 8-9.<\/p>\n

As the Panthers open mandatory minicamp week Monday, the offensive line remains scrutinized. The unit promises to feature two of the summer’s top position battles: left tackle and center.<\/p>\n

First-round draft choice Monroe Freeling should continue to compete against veteran free-agent veteran Rasheed\u00a0 Walker to earn the starting left tackle role with Ikem Ekwonu<\/a> out with a knee injury. Fifth-rounder Sam Hecht also could challenge free-agent veteran Luke Fortner<\/a> at center.<\/p>\n

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Panthers players prep for NFL mandatory minicamp position battles<\/p>\n

The Panthers’ players, including the veterans, were scheduled to arrive at Bank of America Stadium on Monday for physical\/medical evaluations. They will engage in three practices Tuesday through Thursday, capping the third phase of the offseason training activities (OTAs).\u00a0It’s the lone OTA event that the veterans must attend.<\/p>\n

Since joining the Panthers before the 2024 season, Lewis<\/a> has been one of the team’s more consistent performers, appearing in 33 of 35 games with the franchise. Last season, the veteran earned a 75.7 overall grade from Pro Football Focus. The No. 11-ranked guard out of 81 qualifiers<\/a>, Lewis lauded the offseason moves made by Panthers general manager Dan Morgan.<\/p>\n

Here are parts of what Lewis told The Athletic<\/a> following the initial OTA session June 2.<\/p>\n

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On his expectations of being a leader, Lewis said: “Just come here and put my head down and work, no matter who’s beside me at left tackle or center. My job is to motivate them. Seven years in … I’ve got to lead the younger guys, Rasheed, Monroe and Luke.”<\/p>\n

On Walker, who signed a one-year, “prove-it” deal:\u00a0“He’s hungry. You can tell he wants to play football. You can tell he wants to be good. He listens.”<\/p>\n

On Freeling, who is expected to get work at right and left tackle this summer: “He fired off the ball and hit me in the chest. I said, ‘Yeah, he got it.’ You can tell, 6-(foot)-7, 330 (pounds). Freak, man.”<\/p>\n

More NFL news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Panthers’ Damien Lewis spotlights top NFL mandatory minicamp OL battles, leadership role originally appeared on The Sporting News.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":723394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,1257,200281,86703,284790,241700,593,158818,211070,105424,85],"class_list":["post-723393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-carolina-panthers","tag-damien-lewis","tag-ikem-ekwonu","tag-luke-fortner","tag-monroe-freeling","tag-nfl","tag-offensive-line","tag-rasheed-walker","tag-robert-hunt","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=723393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/723394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=723393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=723393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=723393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}